Martin Guitars, a staple of 1960’s musicians - including Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan - once used ivory fittings in its instruments. Today, they’re working to save the African elephants that they once helped decimate. Photo: ITV/Rex Features

What do Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash have in common? All three may have contributed to the ivory trade and the slaughter of elephants.

Of course, they probably didn’t do it on purpose. But they all strummed one of the classic, iconic Martin guitars. And, if they bought it before the 1970s, it may have included parts made with ivory. CF Martin & Co, worried about the elephant slaughter, eventually dropped ivory from its repertoire and now – perhaps to shake the ghosts of elephants past – is hoping to do even more.

Elephants rock!

The company, created in 1833 when Andrew Jackson was in the White House, is teaming up with the Nature Conservancy to help protect African elephants. “Forty-five years ago we phased out the use of ivory,” says Chris Martin, CEO of the company. “And yet today I’m still concerned about the horrible slaughter of elephants. This is a terrible shame and it should stop.”

Decimated by poaching and trophy hunting, the elephant population in Africa has shrunk by nearly two thirds since 1980, falling from 1.2 million to a mere 430,000. Recently, one of world’s largest tuskers, Satao, was slaughtered by poachers in Kenya, sparking outrage across the world.

Martin and the Nature Conservancy are looking to raise money and awareness to better protect the prized mammal. The pair have launched a fund raising campaign at Indiegogo and have already topped their initial fundraising goal of $12,000.

“Martin Guitar is lending their star power to help end this crisis and the awareness they raise for the issue will make a real difference,” says David Banks, managing director for the Nature Conservancy’s Africa Program.

You’ve taken the peanuts. Now our contrails?

Airlines, especially in America, are famous for their constant cutbacks. But here is one we can all get behind: finding a way to cut their rapidly rising carbon emissions.

Researchers at the University of Redding in Britain recently demonstrated that jets contribute less to global warming if they can dodge the places that help produce condensation trails – even if it means flying longer. So, by cutting their vapor trails, airlines could cut their carbon.

Contrails form when jets fly into cold and moist air, often when it is combined with a high pressure system. Just like clouds, contrails can trap some of the infrared energy radiating from Earth, and so have a net warming effect on the planet.

“If we can predict the regions where contrails will from, it may be possible to mitigate their effect, routing aircraft to avoid them,” says Emma Irvine at Reading’s department of Meteorology.

Trees: make some noise!

Here is a twist on an age-old question: if an illegal logger hacks at a tree in a rainforest, does anybody else hear it?

Soon the proper authorities might.

Between 50% and 90% of rainforest logging is illegal; unfortunately, the authorities aren’t always around to hear – much less catch – tree poachers in action. However, a California startup, Rainforest Connection, may have found a solution: a listening device made up of old smart phones. The gadget, which looks like a rather dumb pinwheel of techno-detritus when tacked high in a tree, will be able to tell authorities when bad guys are up to no good in the forest.

“This technology enables the forest to talk to the world,” said Neil Young, the Canadian born rocker who spoke on a video for the company’s Kickstarter campaign.

The campaign has already raised nearly $40,000 of its $100,000 goal to help make the solar-powered gizmos. Besides helping saving the tress and the natural habitat, the company says it will also slow global warming.

“With each one of these devices we are able to do something equivalent of taking 3,000 cars off the road by protecting an entire square mile of endangered forest,” says Topher White, a physicist and founder of the company.

The devices, which will be installed in Cameroon this year with expansion plans to other countries, “can detect and pinpoint signs of environmental destruction activity – such as chainsaws, gunshots and animal distress calls – at great distance.”

“This is the most exciting critical new tool I’ve seen that I think can help us get the job done,” says Randy Hayes, the founder of the Rainforest Action Network.

This is the first story in ‘Oddly Sustainable’, a new series. If you have any ideas for future blogposts, please leave them in the comments.

Russ Blinch is chief scribbler at CopyCarbon.com and a blogger for the Huffington Post.

The sustainable living hub is funded by Unilever. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.